The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs has  this week announced NZ$4 million to the Government of Tonga in general budget support. This is in addition to NZ$100,000 previously provided and another NZ$1 million to be given to Tonga’s Ministry of Health to support implementing its CoViD-19 response plan.

The New Zealand High Commission stated that the contribution is intended to respond to the wide-ranging health, economic, and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The announcement is part of a bigger package of general budget support to a number of Pacific Governments to assist them with the economic and social challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

NZ$10 million is also available for requests from the Pacific Island countries preparing their health systems to deal with COVID-19.

The New Zealand Government had already received and were urgently responding to a number of these requests.